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So what? If it works and is convenient why not use it? I try not to get stuck in free software religion like Stallman is.

Well some of us don't believe in giving up free software for 'convenience' especially when that convenience involves sending everything I type into the dash to a proprietary server. That is just about the very definition of spyware... And being tracked like that is one of the MAJOR points against proprietary software for everyone at the free software camp. It's one of the reasons the FSF was founded in the first place!

Ethics aside, I'm now wondering what awesome new convenience feature Ubuntu will ship with this release? 12.04 had the HUD, 12.10 had the whole web apps thing and dash previews. What's 13.04 bringing to the table? I thought the smart scopes were it's big awesome feature?

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People like you are missing the point about free software. You're too young or ignorant to really understand the idea or what it has given to you.

Try to imagine a world without free software. A world where every program is developed in secrecy and sold by corporations. Where there are no hackers or coders who do it for the sheer enjoyment of coding, instead only worker drones for large software corporations pushing code in a thankless 9-5 cubicle. Users are all demoted to the role of passive consumption, instead of active participation. You won't be able to control what your computer does, as you're only it's user - there's no ideology to support the idea that a user must have full control of their hardware, so every computer, every OS, is riddled with DRM and trusted computing schemes. If you try to copy files that are marked as copyrighted, your computer won't let you. If you try to save eg. video streams on your hard disk, your computer won't let you. Every time you try to perform an action your computer/OS manufacturer has deemed illegal, probably because it goes against other corporate interests, your computer just goes "I can't let you do that, Dave" and maybe reports you on some universal naughty list. There's no such thing as net neutrality, tor, piratism, freedom of speech - all is controlled by corporate interest. No peer-to-peer networks exist, everything follows a top-down passive consumption model.

See, THAT is the world your "convenience" brings you. That is the cost of ignoring freedom. Free software is not a religion, it is a way to guarantee that the user has some power against the corporations, that the user is in control of their hardware and software. It's digital activism. Hacker ethics. Stallman might be extreme in his views, but it's good that someone like him exists, to bring a balance to all these greedy sellouts who'd forget their free software roots in a heartbeat to make a quick buck.

Those who would give up freedom for convenience deserve neither.

Software is an effing TOOL. You don't pray to it, you are not religious about it. It should WORK.

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Software is an effing TOOL. You don't pray to it, you are not religious about it. It should WORK.

Stay with Ubuntu and keep hailing the "convenient" but non-free features and see how fast Ubuntu serves Canonical's needs and not yours. In my experience "just works" is software with the least restrictive licensing and the least dependence on online third party components. Then again, some people like onerous restrictions, so it may be right up your alley.

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Software is an effing TOOL. You don't pray to it, you are not religious about it. It should WORK.

Oh my, what a convenient way to sidestep and avoid everything I just said and move right back into crying "wah wah! free software is a religion!" without providing any kind of rational basis or justification for your argument.

Thanks for playing though! Who's next?

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Oh my, what a convenient way to sidestep and avoid everything I just said and move right back into crying "wah wah! free software is a religion!" without providing any kind of rational basis or justification for your argument.

Thanks for playing though! Who's next?

Yes, "free software only!!" is a religion. Welcome to the real world.

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There is, and we're getting there. I'm not opposed to using proprietary software (gasp!) when free alternatives do not exist, as long as that proprietary software behaves reasonably and can be reasonably well assured to be free of any malicious, user-hostile features (this neatly excludes everything microsoft has ever done, hehe) - HOWEVER, and here comes the big but:

If you start arguing that "it doesn't matter" if software is free or proprietary "as long as it just works", that's when we have a problem. As long as people stop caring about the freedom of their software, they delegate themselves to the position of a passive consumer, and thus abdicate any right whatsoever to complain about the products that the corporate pushes on them. Because free software is exactly that, the freedom to control your own hardware and software, the freedom to choose, the freedom to participate. When you stop caring about the freedom of your software, you give away all of that, and what I described might sound dystopian to you, but if free software didn't exist, that would be exactly the world we would be living in.

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Stay with Ubuntu and keep hailing the "convenient" but non-free features and see how fast Ubuntu serves Canonical's needs and not yours. In my experience "just works" is software with the least restrictive licensing and the least dependence on online third party components. Then again, some people like onerous restrictions, so it may be right up your alley.

And I will, you know. People get tired messing with terminal with little to no profit when you can have a system working out-of-the-box. Again, no wonder why Ubuntu 12.10 64-bit outnumbers all other distributions and versions combined.

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I will take iron-fisted control over anarchy any day. People should have their sense of entitlement cut down to size by being forced to toe the line.

There is no such thing as freedom without regulations.

And as a content producer myself I refuse to let anybody have free reign over my copyrighted content without paying any royalties or even seeking approval to distribute it.

So let me ask you something. Why don't you move to North Korea? It seems like your kind of country. No anarchy, iron-fisted control all the way. No need to think, no need to bother your pretty little head with politics, just smile and do your job like the happy little drone that you are, and maybe you'll get some bread for your wife and 5 kids.

Just remember to Never question the authority, be a happy little consumer drone, and you won't get sent to the Gulag. (A bit of a mixed metaphor, I know, but I have no idea where Kim sends his political dissidents...)

Freedom without regulations? Sure, we need regulations. We need regulations to stop corporate interests from taking precedence over fundamental human rights. We need regulations that stop abusive corporate strategies (such as secure boot), we need regulations to stop abuses of the patent system (software patents), abuses of the copyright system (pretty much everything RIAA, MPAA and all their pals do). What we don't need are any more regulations that are simply toothless paper tigers, watered down by neutered, bought politicians, or worse - regulations that pander to corporate interests.

As a content producer myself, I release all my works under GPL or Creative Commons licenses, granting people the freedom to distribute or modify them on certain terms. As a content producer myself, I can see that the entire idiocy of criminalizing sharing of content is not going to do any good to anyone in the long run and only plays into the pockets of the old gatekeepers. As a content producer myself, I realize that we need to develop better business models that are based on freedom and participation, not pushing products to passive consumers. The war against piracy is already lost, just like the all the other wars against abstract concepts - the big moneybags just refuse to face the facts. It's better to plan your business model around it, taking advantage of it, instead of trying to fight the windmills.

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So let me ask you something. Why don't you move to North Korea? It seems like your kind of country. No anarchy, iron-fisted control all the way. No need to think, no need to bother your pretty little head with politics, just smile and do your job like the happy little drone that you are, and maybe you'll get some bread for your wife and 5 kids.

Just remember to Never question the authority, be a happy little consumer drone, and you won't get sent to the Gulag. (A bit of a mixed metaphor, I know, but I have no idea where Kim sends his political dissidents...)

Freedom without regulations? Sure, we need regulations. We need regulations to stop corporate interests from taking precedence over fundamental human rights. We need regulations that stop abusive corporate strategies (such as secure boot), we need regulations to stop abuses of the patent system (software patents), abuses of the copyright system (pretty much everything RIAA, MPAA and all their pals do). What we don't need are any more regulations that are simply toothless paper tigers, watered down by neutered, bought politicians, or worse - regulations that pander to corporate interests.

As a content producer myself, I release all my works under GPL or Creative Commons licenses, granting people the freedom to distribute or modify them on certain terms. As a content producer myself, I can see that the entire idiocy of criminalizing sharing of content is not going to do any good to anyone in the long run and only plays into the pockets of the old gatekeepers. As a content producer myself, I realize that we need to develop better business models that are based on freedom and participation, not pushing products to passive consumers. The war against piracy is already lost, just like the all the other wars against abstract concepts - the big moneybags just refuse to face the facts. It's better to plan your business model around it, taking advantage of it, instead of trying to fight the windmills.

What a mess. You have neither market nor patents nor whatsoever in NK. Everything is public property, Stallman's dream.